Thousands of people braved icy conditions on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and businesses closed their doors amid anger over the detention of a five-year-old migrant boy.Dozens of eateries, attraction sites and other businesses shuttered as part of a day of coordinated action to defy the weeks-long federal immigration operation underway in Minnesota.Images of an apparently terrified pre-schooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, being held by immigration officers who were seeking to arrest the boy’s father have rekindled public outrage at the federal crackdown, during which an agent shot and killed a US citizen.The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Ramos was a preschool student, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Adrian Conejo Arias — both asylum seekers — were taken from their driveway as they arrived home on Tuesday.Ramos was then used as “bait” by officers to draw out those inside his home, superintendent Zena Stenvik added.One protester, who declined to be named, told AFP he was marching “because if we don’t fight, we don’t win. If we don’t fight, fascism wins.”The local man held a sign reading “five-years-old, dude,” a reference to Ramos.Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants across the country.On a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed Ramos was among those detained. But he argued that agents were protecting him after his father “ran” from officers.”What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” he said.UN human rights chief Volker Turk called on US authorities to end the “harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”Arias, the father of the boy, was at a Texas detention facility, according to an ICE database that does not list the whereabouts of under-18s.- ‘Dealing with children’ -Border Patrol senior official Gregory Bovino defended his officers’ treatment of Ramos, telling reporters Friday: “I will say unequivocally that we are experts in dealing with children.”ICE commander Marcos Charles said Friday “my officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family” and alleged that Ramos’s family refused to open the door to him after his father left him and ran from officers.They would be detained “pending their immigration proceedings,” he added after alleging they entered the United States illegally and were “deportable.”Ramos’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright young student.” In Minneapolis, where temperatures touched -23C (-9F) on Friday, protesters wrapped in hats, gloves and scarves chanted “ICE out” as part of a broader anti-ICE day of action.Separately, protesters picketed outside Minneapolis-St. Paul airport over the facility’s use for deporting those swept up in immigration raids. Methodist pastor Mariah Furness Tollgaard said in a statement that 100 members of clergy were arrested and charged with trespassing and disobeying a peace officer on Friday, while demonstrating at the airport.”As a faith leader in Minnesota, my tradition teaches that every person bears the image of God and is worthy of dignity and safety, and in this moment, all people of faith and moral conscience must stand up,” she said.- ‘Just a baby’ -Former US vice president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Ramos’s detention and called him “just a baby.”Ramos is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, administrators said.Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good on January 7.An autopsy concluded that the killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged.Marc Prokosch, the lawyer for Ramos and his father, said they followed the law in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.Children have been caught up in immigration enforcement under both Republican and Democratic administrations.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application Monday.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Friday denounced as “insulting” President Donald Trump’s claim that troops from NATO allies avoided the front line in Afghanistan, as anger grows at the US president’s remarks.In an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers were among NATO troops who died during the conflict in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.”They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump told the US outlet, referring to NATO allies.”And they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he added, triggering outrage across the political divide in Britain.Trump also repeated his suggestion that NATO would not come to the aid of the US if asked to do so.In fact, following the 9/11 attacks, the UK and several European countries joined the US in Afghanistan after it invoked NATO’s collective security clause for the first and only time.Soldiers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and others also died in the conflict.”Let me start by paying tribute to 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan,” Starmer said in a video message.”There are many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries, and so I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly, appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.” He said that if he had misspoken in such a way, he “would certainly apologise”.The White House rejected Starmer’s comments and defended the president.”President Trump is absolutely right — the United States of America has done more for NATO than any other country in the alliance has done combined,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement sent to AFP.- ‘Heroes’ -Poland’s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said he expected respect for Polish veterans “who have proven how much they serve this country and our commitments to allies”.Poland lost 43 soldiers in the conflict in Afghanistan.French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said 90 French soldiers died in Afghanistan on operations alongside NATO allies and “many others” were wounded.”We remember their sacrifice, which commands respect.”UK defence minister John Healey posted on X that the British troops who died were “heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation”.UK Armed forces minister Al Carns, who served five tours in Afghanistan, said Trump’s comments were “utterly ridiculous”.The leader of the opposition Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, said Trump’s comments were “complete nonsense” which could weaken the NATO alliance.Even Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party and a long-time Trump supporter rebuked the American leader.”Donald Trump is wrong,” he said on X. “For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.” Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died aged 18 in Afghanistan, told The Mirror newspaper that Trump’s remarks were “extremely upsetting”.Mark Atkinson, Director General of the veterans’ charity, The Royal British Legion, said the service and sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan “cannot be called into question”.Prince Harry, who undertook two frontline tours to Afghanistan with the Army Air Corps, also weighed in.”I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,” he said.”Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”According to official UK figures, 405 of the 457 British casualties who died in Afghanistan were killed in hostile military action.The US reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers.More than 150,000 UK armed forces personnel served in Afghanistan between September 2001 and August 2021, the Ministry of Defence said, making the UK the second-largest contributor to the US-led force there.